Novak Djokovic famously prides himself on being a very fair player, and while he mostly is, he didn’t get nominated for the sportsmanship award this year, outraging his fans.
Djokovic is one of the best players in the world and one of the greatest tennis players of all time. When it comes to sportsmanship, though, his record is a mixed bag.
He’s mostly been respectful towards players and the sport in the past, but there were a few incidents that were less than impressive. He was defaulted at the US Open for hitting a line judge in his match against Pablo Carreno Busta, which was a bad look.
Although it was an accident, carelessly hitting the ball like that isn’t exactly the most gracious thing to do on a tennis court. He’s also broken multiple rackets over the years, which, again, can be used against him.
He’s shown himself to be a bit of a hothead at times, and all these factors make former WTA player and current tennis analyst Rennae Stubbs understand why he wasn’t chosen for the sportsmanship award.
His fans were not happy after the exclusion, though, with one fan calling out the media for what was perceived as a campaign against Djokovic.
"@jon_wertheim @ATP Again the cabal of @atptour @DKTNNS @jon_wertheim @Martina @PHShriver do mass media against Novak. I respect @ChrissieEvert and @rennaestubbs for having empathy."
Since Stubbs was mentioned in that tweet, she responded by defending his exclusion from the nominations list, explaining that the Serbian player was not always a great sport on the tennis court.
"Nothing to do with that. Novak is not a great sport on court; he’s been defaulted, broken rackets, etc., among other things. He’s absolutely a gracious loser, I’ll give him that, but this award is for sportsmanship on and off court. So don’t make this about anything but that."
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